Policeman tests positive days after taking Covid jab

Health officials on Wednesday dismissed concerns that coronavirus jabs made by mainland drug maker Sinovac are ineffective, after a police officer tested positive for the virus days after he took the vaccine.

The inspector, 38, and his family came into contact on March 7 with someone who later became a confirmed patient.

The policeman took the jab on March 12, and tested positive for Covid-19 two days later.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said officials do not consider the case of the police officer as an infection after vaccination.

She said the officer and his family might have been infected during the March 7 gathering, adding it took weeks for a vaccine to show its effects.

“We believe that they have already been infected when tested on March 14th, only two days after the first dose of the vaccine. So we do not classify this as ineffective vaccine or so because usually it takes two doses for the vaccine scheduled to be completed and usually it takes some more time, at least maybe two weeks or so after completion of the vaccines, before you can count whether this is ineffective or not,” she said.

The centre reported 11 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, eight of which are locally acquired.

Two of the local cases are unlinked. The patients are a bartender who works in Wan Chai and a housewife who lives in Ho Man Tin.

Five more cases are linked to an outbreak at a gym in Sai Ying Pun, taking the total number of infections in the Ursus Fitness cluster to 132.

A girl, 3, has also come down with the disease after her parents who work at the US Consulate tested positive.

She went to a pre-school in Mid-Levels. Some of her close contacts will be put under quarantine.

About 10 other people have tested preliminary positive for the virus, including a secondary school student and an IT worker.